It had been thirty minutes since Wenshi had left for the bathroom, and Long Ao's worry had started to peak.
On impulse, he pulled aside a female waitress and asked if she could go to the female washroom and check on Wenshi for him. The waitress agreed and went inside to have a look while Long Ao waited outside.
As soon as the waitress entered, she was hit with a strong smell of iron, and her being a horror and thriller fan decided that it was a good idea to investigate.
She followed the scent of blood to the very back of the washroom, where the handicap stall was and found the stall door locked. She knocked twice on the door and called out for the miss that was supposedly in the bathroom stall.
After about two minutes of repeating the same process of knocking and calling, the waitress started to worry. Her worry was now about the same as the man waiting impatiently outside the door, the growing smell of iron definitely not helping.
On the verge of panicking, the waitress grabbed an emergency fire hydrant in the bathroom and begun to use it to smash the stall door. After three hits, the door buckled and fell to the ground, alerted a certain man outside.
Terrified, Long Ao bust into the bathroom and begun sprinting to the back of the washroom. By then, the waitress had screamed and fainted on the spot after witnessing the view inside the stall.
Long Ao wasn't perturbed by the scent of iron.
But knowing that blood smelled like the metal irked him, and the strong smell of iron was indicating a large amount of blood was near him.
When he finally reached the end of the hallway, he was met with the sight of pooling blood and an unconscious waitress.
By now, he was starting to see red (no sh*t, blood is red), and his vision was getting confused. He stumbled into the stall and was met with a horrifying sight.
Now don't get him wrong his beloved wasn't the horrifying thing.
It was the fact that she was injured and bleeding profusely with several injuries.
From the looks of it, his baby had put up a good fight, and for just a short moment, he was prideful of his baby. That is, until he remembered her injuries.
His vision turned red once again, and he hurriedly picked up Wenshi and placed her on the carpeted floor outside of the bathroom, not forgetting to apply pressure to her wounds.
As if he'd allow her to lay on the cold tiled floor of the washroom.
His state of mind worsened when he found that Wenshi was bleeding from too many places and that he could not pressure all of them. He started yelling and screaming crazily, immediately alerting guests and servers.
Some of the servers that weren't stuck in a stupor quickly knelt down to help apply pressure to his beloved's several wounds. Another went inside the bathroom to see if they could find anyone else inside and came out with the waitress in arms.
Fortunately, the waitress had only passed out from shock.
By the time the paramedics arrived, Long Ao and the other man had managed to stop most of the bleeding. But by then, anyone could tell that the victim had already lost too much blood.
Other guests had either left or stayed behind to watch the "show," He ridiculed and spat on them in his mind.
These sick people thought that someone dying was just another thing to laugh about. They were the reason why he preferred life in the underworld because they didn't laugh at death unless they were crazy.
Long Ao was right on the paramedics' tail as they carried her over to the waiting ambulance flashing red and blue lights.
By then, the police had arrived and had already begun closing off the area while some headed inside.
Just by the looks of it, he could tell that the police department had sent the best of the best to have a look at the crime scene at the most luxurious restaurant in the city.
With one last look at the wretched place, the second young master of the Li family, Li Long Ao, boarded the flashy ambulance.
And as the doors closed, if you looked closely, you could see the pools of regret, grief and finally, self-blame in the young man's eyes.
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As soon as they reached the hospital, Zhang Wenshi was rushed into the ER, surgeons, doctors and nurses already on standby inside.
Long Ao did not bother fighting to get inside the ER, he didn't have the energy to.
With his head in his hands and elbows on his knees, he sat there sobbing as quietly as he could. But he couldn't, he couldn't hold it in. Visitors and patients walked by with pity and sympathy in their eyes, others with understanding.
He didn't see them, no, he was too busy letting out his emotions. For years, he had not shed a tear. He had killed many times before, yet nothing came out. When he found out what had happened to his family, not a single tear slipped out.
So why now?
For a girl that he hadn't even known for a year.
Because he loved her.
God, he loved her so, so, so much.
And what good had his love done?
How could he have let something happen to her when she was right under his nose? What was the point of having all this power and money if he still failed to protect the person he loved most?
As his tears pooled on the hospital floor.
As he ran his hands through his formally done hair.
As his best suit soaked in a cascade of liquid sadness.
He made a promise to himself.
He would get stronger.
Get better.
More powerful.
Become the best of the best.
And give everything to the woman he loves.
But first, he has to find the culprit, and he could think of no one except for Fang. Wu. Ping.
For the past three years, that girl had creeped him out. Leaving him secret messages. Chasing his girl-friends away. There were multiple occasions he spotted her following him to certain places or lurking around the boys' dormitory.
Plenty of times where she'd flirt with his friends that hit on him later.
At first, he liked her because she was an innocent girl with cute actions, then, later on, she begun to change, and that was when he started avoiding her.
He found it repulsive whenever she came back to school with a brand new nose or something. Her clothing too revealing and ambigious for his tastes.
Eventually, he stopped liking her period.
He never told Wenshi this, but he knew about the secret messages and the threats that she found directed at her. He recognized the handwriting immediately.
The way they slanted and curved ever so perfectly. The hearted 'i's.
Everything pointed to Fang Wuping.
It was then that he had realized that what Fang Wuping had for him wasn't a simple crush, it was an obsession. For the sake of her father, a man he very much admired, he turned a blind eye, thinking that she'd give up soon.
He should've known better.
Long Ao had his men do some digging, and they found out that her mother had done drugs while pregnant with both her children. The first child, a boy, had a severe internal condition that was expensive to treat.
While Fang Wuping's brother was diagnosed with a physical problem at birth, she was born with no defects, at least, that was what the doctors thought.
According to research, there was an 88% chance of Fang Wuping having OLD, aka, obsessive love disorder, in short...
Psychosis